Chocolate cake with vanilla lemon pudding and fruit

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 500 g dark chocolate with 70% cocoa
• 300 g butter, a little more for greasing
• 8 eggs, size L
• 140 g flour
• 300 g sugar
• 1 packet of baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 liter of milk
• 1 vanilla pod(s)
• 1 lemon(s), organic, zest
• 100 g sugar
• 80 g cornstarch
• 400 g fruits, various, e.g. currants, raspberries, strawberries, alternatively frozen berry mix
• 12 mint leaves for decoration

Instructions

Working time approx. 5 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 40 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 45 minutes

for one baking tray, makes 12 pieces

Wash the organic lemon, dry it, and zest it. Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod. Combine the milk, lemon zest, vanilla seeds, and vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring almost to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and let the vanilla milk steep for a few hours, or until the chocolate cake is ready. Preheat the oven to 175°C (top/bottom heat) or 150°C (fan oven). Chop the dark chocolate and roughly dice the butter, and melt both in a mixing bowl over a warm water bath. Let it cool. Then transfer the chocolate mixture to another bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time using the whisk attachment of a hand mixer. In another bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Stir this mixture into the chocolate and egg mixture. Spread the batter evenly on a greased baking sheet and smooth it out. The batter should be about 2 cm thick. Grease the bottom of a muffin tin and press it into the center of the baking tray about 1 cm deep into the batter. Leave the muffin tin in the oven. Bake the cake in the middle rack at 175°C (top/bottom heat) or 150°C (fan oven) for 20-25 minutes. The cake should still be a little moist. Remove from the oven, let it cool, and remove the muffin tin from the batter. You will now have 12 holes, which you can fill. Wash and dry the fresh fruit, and place it in the holes as desired. Alternatively, thaw frozen fruit and place it in the holes as desired. For the pudding, weigh out some cornstarch and mix it with a little cold vanilla milk until smooth. Remove the vanilla pod from the milk and return the pan to the heat. Then, over medium heat, slowly add the dissolved cornstarch to the vanilla milk, stirring constantly. Stir until the vanilla milk thickens. Remove from the heat in time to prevent the pudding from burning. Pour the still-warm pudding over the fruit in the molds. The remaining pudding can be placed in another bowl with the remaining fruit. Allow everything to cool and set. Once everything has cooled, cut the cake into 12 square slices and garnish with the mint leaves.